Just Another Day At The Office
by MissToastie
Summary: Set at the end of 'Season Four - Episode four. - COMPLETE -.


**Set after Season four episode four, so if you've not seen the episode yet - don't continue reading!**

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**One shot -**

The ride home was silent; the rest of the afternoon consisted of Maura starting and finishing an autopsy for the drug unit, while Jane wrapped up the loose ends on today's case. The pair only able to keep in touch via text or instant message until the end of their shifts where they met in the car park, greeted one another with a longing hug and talked about dinner.

"Did your mother manage to persuade Bass to eat his dandelion greens?" Maura asked as she entered the house and saw her tortoise shuffling his way through the kitchen. "When I took him to his yearly check up with the veterinarian she suggested only giving him the British strawberries on a rare occasion as tortoises can become very addicted to them, and then refuse to eat anything other than strawberries," Maura huffed and placed her hand on her hip. "Which I'm afraid may have happened."

"Mmm." Jane lingered in the doorway; not really listening to what Maura was saying.

"Jane?" Maura tilted her head to the side and analyzed her friend. "Kitty got your tongue?"

"What?" Jane blinked and starred. "It's 'Cat got your tongue'" She placed her keys, badge, and gun in her allocated drawer in the cupboard behind Maura's lounge and decided to quietly stare at the ground. "Are we going to talk about this?"

"About what?" Maura asked as she nervously ran her hand through her hair. "Don't look at me like that."

"About what happened today, Maur."

"Just another day at the office, right?" Maura crossed her arms over her chest as Jane scoffed. "How come when something happens to me I have to talk about it, but when you almost lose your brother, your baby nephew, and your partner on the same day the supposed love of your life walks away from you - you get to shrug it off as "another day at the office!"" Maura used her fingers to do air quotations at the end of her sentence.

"You were in jail, Maura! You were looking at life imprisonment!" Jane spat her words without meaning to. "Do you know how worried I was for you? Knowing that you were not capable of murder but every single ounce of evidence was pointing in your direction?!"

"I was worried for myself too, Jane! My reputation - my career - _my life_ was on the line!"

"I have gone through so much shit in my life but nothing has ever, ever compared to today. I had to arrest my best friend, the one person in this world who I care the most about and I had to arrest her for murder. For murder, Maura! Knowing you were in jail, knowing what happens in jails especially to women who look like you - I felt sick to my stomach. But I had to be strong, I had to put up a front because I could not stop until you were cleared, I would have worked this case for the rest of my life if it meant to prove you were innocent." Jane wiped her nose with her hand. "So forgive me if I actually want to talk about this now and that for once in my life I want to fall to pieces! Because I was scared Maura, and the only other time I was this petrified was when I thought Hoyt was going to kill you right in front of me."

"I don't know how to talk about it Jane. Today has been so much for me to process, I'm still missing a few hours of memory, I've had little to no sleep," Maura made her way over to the table on her left and pulled out a chair. "Do you know what I was thinking about the entire time I was in jail?" She watched as Jane slowly made her way over and joined her by sitting across from her. "All I could think about was that 'Jane will save me, she will prove that I'm not guilty and she will save me.'" Maura reached over and grabbed Jane's hand and held it tightly. "My Jane would save me."

"All I could think about was that I hoped you wouldn't drop the soap in the shower." Both women laughed for the first time in what had felt like ages. "They would have eaten you alive if you had stayed in there for much longer." She rubbed her thumb over Maura's knuckles.

"But I'm home, I'm with you and I am safe," Maura tugged on Jane's hand so that Jane could look at her. "You make me safe."

"You know," Jane blushed and a small smile crept on her face. "Ma gave Cavanaugh a video of you and her doing some self defense crap, which was used as evidence against you," Jane watched as Maura processed the new information. "And I was so angry that she went behind my back and gave it to her boyfriend instead of me."

"What would you have done with the video?" Maura cocked her head to the side.

"Deleted it."

"Jane!" Maura gasped. "You would not have."

"Seriously?" Jane's left eyebrow arched. "I would have only got a year."

"A year? In prison?!" Maura removed her hand from atop of Jane's. "Are you insane?! Did you not see what they did to me when they only thought I was a member of the Boston Police? They would have beaten you senseless - every single day!"

"I'd take that and more if it meant keeping you out of jail," Jane reached across and pulled Maura's hand back to the center of the table. "I'd give my life to keep you safe."

"You're crazy." Maura whispered as tears filled her eyes and slowly began to fall down her face.

Jane stood up and walked to the other side of the table, bent down at her knees and wiped Maura's tears. "It's what you do to me," Her voice was a low husky whisper. "I'm not losing you Maura. I'd rather lose myself than lose you."

"You're perfect," Maura took Jane's hand and kissed it. "Thank you."

"You're not so bad yourself," Jane playfully poked Maura in the nose as she stood up. "C'mon, enough of the tears now - I'ma feed Bass a strawberry or three."

"Jane!" Maura reached for the tissues in the middle of the table. "I just finished telling you that he can become addicted to them if he eats them too much!"

"Too bad, so sad!" The detective grabbed the punnet of strawberries from the fridge and set off to look for Bass. "Bass, Bass, Bassy! Here turtle turtle, I've got yum yums!"

"Honestly Jane, he's a tortoise!" Maura slipped her heels off under the table and ran after her best friend. "You're completely insufferable sometimes!"

**The End.**

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**My apologies for not updating my other fics (Especially 'My Maura') life has been complicated (if you follow my tumblr you know why) but I am slowly getting there and on the road to recovery. **

**Hopefully this was okay, feel free to hit 'review' - those things are really inspiring. **

**Remember to keep smiling, kids. **

**- MT.**


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